A set of modern art books are displayed in a bookcase.
Some games aren’t fun until you’ve invested hours. The gaming industry can learn from how fiction writers and the publishing industry prioritize the first few minutes of contact between the audience and the story.
Over the holidays, I’ve returned to a few games that I previously tried and abandoned. I’m roughly 20 hours into Bethesda’s space exploration RPG Starfield (I’ve tried playing it twice before) and I think it’s finally starting to feel kind of fun.
Games these days are extremely long. AAA RPG like Baldur’s Gate 3, Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Persona 5, AND The Witcher 3it can take players over 100 hours to complete. Simply completing the main story arcs for these titles can take 20-50 hours.
This has not always been the case, but in recent years, games have been extended. And as reviewers and players have noted, these games, even when they’re great, can take forever to get to the fun part.
I found the first 15 hours of Starfield very tiring. If I didn’t love Bethesda’s previous matches (and if Starfield wasn’t available on Xbox Game Pass) I doubt I would have dived in again.
Some games are hard to get into because they are challenging. Learning a new set of mechanics and improving a new set of skills can be overwhelming.
For the most part, though, I’ve had a hard time jumping into the last few RPGs, incl Starfield AND Dragon Agebecause these games don’t use story strategy to hook me within the first hour.
This is a far cry from how other storytelling mediums and genres work—in fiction writing, the opening sentence is essential.
In their book on the publishing industry, Best selling codeMatthew Jockers and Jodie Archer point out that the first sentence of a bestseller is an important hook, “a mixture of voice and conflict” that should leave the reader wanting more.
Take John Grisham’s opening sentence The rainmaker: “My decision to become a lawyer was irrevocably sealed when I realized that my father hated the legal profession.” In under 20 words, Grisham establishes an authoritative voice, introduces the narrator, and hints at conflict between father and son, sparking curiosity. We want to know who this guy is.
This type of opening line may seem straightforward, but it’s hard to pull off. Packing character and intrigue into a few words without relying on explanations is difficult. These opening lines raise questions and provide no answers.
Games can, and do, make similar moves. One from Bethesda previous matches, skyrim, takes a few cues from the bestselling playbook: the first fifteen minutes are filled with conflict and raise questions the player wants answered.
You wake up in a cart on the way to your execution. You see other prisoners being beheaded. Then it’s your turn—you kneel down, the ax is ready to swing, and a dragon descends on a nearby building and starts destroying everything. You run away and run for your life.
There is an unresolved conflict not only between the player and the Imperial soldiers, but also between the player and the dragon. The fact that you still can’t defend yourself gives you a reason to improve your skills. You leave with questions about why you were imprisoned and how you fit into the world.
Conversely, Starfield opens when you join a space mining team and find an alien object. Pirates appear and try to take the object. You defeat them, handily. You get a ship. Then you can do almost anything you want. The game also gives you complete freedom without doing too much character building to pique your interest.
Given that many games span 50+ hours of playtime, it makes sense that the opening moments are de-prioritized—players will have hours and hours to get to know the locations, characters, and mechanics. At the same time, without a solid opening, it’s hard for players to understand their characters’ motivations. Even massive RPGs like Starfield would benefit from paying more attention to the equivalent of their opening line – if they did, it might take less than 20 hours for these games to feel fun.
